OFFICE OF CATHOLIC PUBLICATIONS, Imprimatur, 1877and from
THE CATECHIST, by the Very Rev. Canon Howe, Imprimatur, 1898

The Ave Maria, or Angelical Salutation,
is the most beautiful and popular of all the prayers which Christians address to
the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is no little child who cannot say it, and when a
mother first teaches her children to pray she always adds to the "Our Father,"
"Hail! Mary."

The whole prayer may be described as a
tribute of love. Who, therefore, has composed it? The first part was spoken by
the Archangel Gabriel, and the second part was added by the Holy Catholic
Church.

Let us consider the occasion, the
circumstances, and the time at which the angelical salutation was given to
Christians.

Mary was at Nazareth, and was praying one
day in a little grotto which formed part of the humble home of Joseph, her
espoused husband. It was the 25th of March. Suddenly Mary saw before her an
Angel surrounded with light. "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee," said
this messenger from God; "blessed art thou among women." And as the Blessed
Virgin was troubled at this salutation, and wondered what it could mean, the
Archangel added, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold,
thou shalt conceive and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name
Jesus" (that is to say, Saviour). "He shall be called the Son of the Most High,
and of His kingdom there shall be no end." And then Mary answered the Angel,
"How shall this be done, because I know not man?" (The blessed Virgin and St.
Joseph had both made a vow of perpetual virginity.) But the Angel said to Mary,
"The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall
overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God, because no word shall be impossible with God." Then
Mary answered "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to
thy word," and the Angel disappered. Thus the Immaculate Virgin became the
Mother of God. And nine months after, on the 25th of December, in the stable at
Bethlehem, she brought miraculously into the world Jesus, her Divine Son. If the
first part of the Hail Mary came from Heaven, so surely did the last; for it is
in the name and by the power of God that the Catholic Church speaks unto men;
and it was the Church, inspired by the Holy Ghost, Whom the year 431 commanded
that this simple and beautiful prayer should be added to the angelical
salutation: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour
of our death. Amen."

The circumstances which occasioned this
addition to be made were these: An Archbishop of Constantinople named Nestorius
having dared both in preaching and in writing to attack the Divine maternity of
the Blessed Virgin, many of the orthodox bishops appealed to the Pope, St.
Celestine, and what his judgment was we may easily suppose. At first he tried
with great forbearance to lead the heretic Nestorius, back to the truth, by
clearly demonstrating that, the Divine nature and the human nature being united
in Jesus Christ in one only Person, Who was both God and man, and thus
inseparable and at the same time the Son of God and the Son of Mary, the Mother
of Jesus Christ must be truly and necessarily the Mother of God. Nestorius was
entirely indifferent to these efforts of the Pope, and he was therefore obliged
to have recourse to more rigorous measures. He condemned Nestorius as a heretic
and an abettor of heresy; he excommunicated him, degraded him from his
ecclesiastical dignities, and convoked a general council of bishops to judge the
guilty man. This council met at Ephesus in the year 431. The solemn assemblies
were held in the ancient church of St. Mary, the first, it is said, ever erected
to the honor of the Virgin Mother. Nothing could be more solemn than the meeting
at which the Fathers judged Nestorius. From the dawn of day they consulted, the
doors of the church being closed. An immense crowd collected outside. The night
came, and the doors were still unopened. . . . At last the meeting ended;
the bishops appeared upon the steps of the portico, three Papal legates at their
head. One of them, St. Cyril of Alexandria, read and proclaimed the sentence in
the midst of an unbroken silence: "Mary is truly the Mother of God. Whoever says
otherwise is a heretic and excommunicated. Anathema to Nestorius!" Exclamations
of joy rose upon all sides.

The bishops were led home in triumph,
incense was burned, and the whole city was brilliantly illuminated. In
remembrance of this great decision the Council of Ephesus commanded that the
words "Holy Mary, Mother of God," etc., should be added to the angelical
salutation.

Thus, for one blasphemy against the Blessed
Virgin, innumerable praises have gone up to Heaven during fourteen centuries,
and God wonderfully brought good out of evil to the glory of His holy Name!

Nestorius, excommunicated and degraded like
Judas from his episcopate, went into a desert to die, cursed by God and men. He
died impenitent, and even while he lived, upon that sacrilegious tongue which
had blasphemed the Mother of God a special curse descended in a very marked and
terrible way.

Such is the origin of the Ave Maria. But in
order that we may be moved to love this prayer, to say it often and attentively
and with an ever-increasing fervor, let us reverently consider the words.
The salutation, Ave, is both an exclamation of love and a mark of reverence
toward the Blessed Virgin; we should therefore say "Hail!" with love and
confidence, because Mary is our good and tender Mother, the Refuge and Advocate
of sinners, the Mother of mercy; and with the deepest veneration, because she is
the most holy Queen of Heaven and earth, and the glorious Mother of God.

In Hebrew the name of Mary signifies queen;
it also signifies sea of bittemess and illuminatrix. The Blessed Virgin is
indeed the Queen of Angels, of Saints, and of men; on Calvary she endured the
most bitter sorrow; and, lastly, she has given to the world Jesus Christ, the
light of truth and holiness.

The Angel Gabriel did not pronounce
the name of Mary . . . The Church has added it, first, out of love for this
sweet name; and, next, to show more clearly that the title "full of grace" could
only be given to Mary. The words in the original are still more expressive than
in the translation. They signify formed in grace; made, or innate with grace.
Mary is perfectly and entirely in the grace of God, and without any stain of
Original or actual sin by the effects of which grace is destroyed. It is to this
singular privilege of complete and perfect sanctity that she owes the title of
Immaculate.

"The Lord is with thee." These words are
given by God as a proof of the perfect union of the Creator with His creature.
God the Father is with Mary as the bridegroom with his well-beloved spouse; God
the Son is with her as a son is with his mother; God the Holy Ghost is with her
as a king, in his palace, as a master in his own domains, as God in His own
temple, as the soul is in the body and with the body.

"The Lord is
with thee. Blessed art thou among women." These words of the Archangel were also
spoken to Mary by St. Elizabeth on the day of the Visitation. Mary is the one
woman above all other women, and it was she of whom God spoke to Adam and Eve
when, in promising a Saviour, He said that He would make a complete separation
between the devil and her. Mary is the woman, expected for four thousand years,
who was predestined to the ineffable glory of giving its Divine Redeemer to the
human race.

St. Elizabeth added, "Blessed is the fruit
of thy womb." And the Church has added here the name of Jesus, so that there
should be found in this prayer the three great names, God, Jesus, Mary: God, the
Creator and Lord of all, and our own last end; Jesus, God made man, the Saviour
of the world; Mary, the bond of union between Heaven and earth.

He
is blessed, the Divine Son of Mary, for God has poured forth on Him without
measure all grace and benediction; and not only is eternally blessed; He is for
all the source of life and benediction, and there can be no blessing but
throught Him.

Holy Mary! Holy, indeed, and more than holy;
for the Church bestows on her an honor far higher than that which is rendered to
the Saints. She does not adore Mary; that would be a sacrilegious idolatry; God
alone, Jesus alone, may be adored. But the Blessed Virgin merits and receives
from the Church a special worship, peculiar to herself, called hyperdulia, which
means honor above all honor. Above Mary there is only Jesus Christ, only God.
Below her, at an immense distance, are Seraphim, Cherubin, Archangels, Angels,
and all the Saints.

Mother of God! What a title, what glory! How
great the power over the Sacred Heart of Jesus which His Own Mother must
possess! How good it is to ask her prayers! "A single look from her," said the
great St. Bernard, "disarms the wrath of Divine justice; and when she pleads in
our favor the graces of the Almighty flow downward like a mighty river." Let us
therefore say with perfect confidence, "O Mother of God, and our Mother, turn
thine eyes of mercy toward us. Pray for us sinners! We do not deserve to be
heard by our Father Who is in Heaven, but thou, His holy, His well-beloved
Mother, thou wilt be heard; and the title we give thee most dear to thy heart
is, "Refuge of Sinners."

"Holy Mother, pray for us now, during the
whole of our life on earth; pray for us at the moment of temptation. Obtain for
us purity, humility, meekness, a lively faith, and final perseverance. Defend us
from the devil, our enemy; guard us from sin today, tomorrow, at every instant
of our life, and especially at the hour of our death. Amen."

That is the decisive moment. It is upon that
last hour that our whole eternity depends; it is then that we shall need
especially the help of the Blessed Mother of God. Let us have confidence; she
will not fail us then. At that supreme moment Mary will come to us if, during
life, we have been faithful in asking her help. "Behold me, my child," she will
say, "I am with thee; thou hast called me. How often hast thou said to me, Hail!
full of grace. And now, my child, I greet thee, full of the grace of my Divine
Son, Who is about to reward thee with eternal glory. Thou hast said to me, The
Lord is With thee; He is with thee also, O my child! and thou shalt be with Him
throughout the blissful ages of eternity. Thou hast blessed me, and hast blessed
the Name of Jesus my Son; and I have blessed thee, and have accompanied thee all
through life with constant benedictions; I have obtained for thee the grace of a
happy death, and at this terrible moment I bless thee yet again. Have
confidence, thy Mother is with thee; thou hast made me thy advocate and thy
refuge. Poor sinner! thou hast done well to seek in my bosom an asylum against
the justice of thy God! He has appointed me the Mother of mercy, and I have
obtained mercy for thee. Come, therefore, soul beloved of my Son, even now is
that last hour of which thou hast spoken every time that thou hast prayed to me;
I change for thee its terrors into a calm, sweet hope. Child of Mary, child of
God, enter into the joy of thy Lord!"

EFFICACY OF THE HAIL
MARY

In the year 1604 there were in the city of
Flanders two young students who, instead of attending to the acquistion of
learning, sought only the indulgence of the appetite and the gratification of
their unchaste passions. One night they went to a house of ill-fame; after some
time, one of them, called Richard, returned home, and the other remained. After
having reached his house, Richard, while undressing to go to bed, remembered
that he had not said the three Hail Marys which he was accustomed to recite
every day in honour of the Blessed Virgin. Being oppressed with sleep, he felt a
great repugnance to say them; however, he did violence to himself and recited
the usual Hail Marys, without devotion, and half asleep. He went to bed, and
during his sleep, he saw before him his companion, presenting a deformed and
hideous appearance. "Who are you?" said Richard. "Do you not know me?" replied
the other. "How," rejoined Richard, "have you undergone such a change? You look
like a demon." "Ah! unhappy me," exclaimed the other, "I am damned. In leaving
that infamous house I was strangled. My body lies in the street, and my soul is
in Hell. Know that the same chastisement awaited you, but the Blessed Virgin, on
account of your little devotion of reciting the Hail Marys, has saved you from
it." Richard, shedding a torrent of tears, fell prostrate on the ground, to
thank Mary, his deliverer, and resolved on a change of life for the future.
-----S. Alphonsus.

S. ALPHONSUS AND THE
HAIL MARY

S. Alphonsus called the Hail Mary the
delicious word of the Saints. He never experienced pleasure equal to that he
felt when saying this prayer; and in reciting it at the beginning of the Office,
he often shed sweet tears of joy, and in his sermons constantly spoke of its
power to his audience. -----Catechisme on Exemples.

S. EDMUND AND THE HAIL
MARY

S. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, had
been brought up with a great devotion to the Most Holy Virgin. When sending him
to Paris to make his studies, his mother recommended him never to let a day pass
without having recourse to his Divine Protectress. That virtuous mother often
wrote to him to avoid bad company, and to frequent the Sacraments of Penance and
the Eucharist; often, too, she sent him instruments of penance, to repress, she
said, the bad inclinations that might injure his virtue. The holy young man,
docile to the counsels of his mother, always showed himself most zealous for the
glory of Mary. He went several times a day to prostrate himself before one of
her statues; and to mark his engagement in the service of the Queen of Angels,
he placed on the finger of one of her statues a ring, on which he had caused to
be engraved the whole of the Angelical Salutation. You shall see how agreeable
that devotion, so sincere, and so persevering, was to the Blessed Virgin. After
the death of the blessed Edmund, it was remarked that the same prayer was
engraved on his episcopal ring, to which that prayer communicated a virtue so
efficaious and miraculous, that it was subsequently used to operate a great
number of cures. If we do not engrave the words of the Hail Mary on a ring, let
us engrave them on our hearts, and that will be still better.
-----Noel.

THE CRIMINAL AND THE
HAIL MARY

A man condemned to death, in Germany,
refused to hear speak of Confession. A Jesuit Father employed all manner of
means to convert him: prayers, tears, penances, exhortations -----but to no
effect. At length he said to him: "Let us say the Hail Mary together." The
prisoner, to get rid of his visitor, consented, and no sooner had he done so
than tears began to fall from his eyes, he made his Confession, full of
contrition and humility, and would only die with a statue of Our Lady in his
hands. -----Catechisme en Exemples.

THE COUNCIL OF
EPHESUS

To refute and condemn the errors of Nestorius, who
denied the Divine" maternity of Mary, the Council of Ephesus was held in the
year 431. The population of the town and neighbourhood betook themselves to the
square in front of the Church where the Council was being held, and there they
remained nearly the whole day, impatient to learn the results. When at length,
in the evening, it became known that Nestorius was condemned and anathematized,
and that the doctrine of the Church formally declared Mary to be the Mother of
God, the enthusiasm of the multitude was unbounded-----they cried out aloud:
"Mary is indeed the Mother of God; Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!" It was
already dark, and the men lit torches to take to their homes the Fathers of the
Council. The whole town was illuminated, and signs of true faith and joy were
everywhere visible, as proof of their love and devotion to Mary. -----Tillemont.